Hearts of Kingdoms
by Suitachi
Summary: Mysteriously, children had been disappearing, but no one knows quite why. They're parents say they are only sick in bed, but a selective few know better. With a promise hanging on his shoulders, Roxas and a few others strive forward into dangerous ground.
1. Chapter 1

**Awright, a new story I came up with in the last day. It's quite confusing at first, but I promise everything will be clearer as the story progresses. **

**Disclaimers: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or anything associated with Kingdom Hearts  
The story might sound a bit like .hack...  
Sorry. xp

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**

Hearts of Kingdoms

"Do you think we over did it this time?"

"No, not at all."

The lips of one hooded male curled in a smile. Of course they hadn't over done it. After all, the men in twilight - grey littered on the ground had been out to kill them both. He turned, staring at those same men in twilight - grey; all face down and crumpled on the dark grey stone ground. They were only unconscious, though he did wish they could have given them the same courtesy they would have given the two in black hoods if he and his buddy had been any weaker.

The shorter hooded male didn't share the same amusement in the unconscious bodies he had helped litter the ground with. Instead, he faced the wide expanse in front of him: a deep canyon of infinite stony grey and in the middle was a large, sinister castle. But he wasn't looking at the castle, and was instead preoccupied with a yellow, star - shaped charm he held in the palm of his hand.

"Don't worry, Naminé," he said to no one in particular. "I'm coming."

Chapter One

"Hey, don't you think it's weird that so many kids have been disappearing all of a sudden? I mean, it's kinda unnatural if you think about it," started a girl with layered brown hair. Another girl with darker brown hair looked up from her book, turning to look at the girl who had just spoken, and at least shrugged in response.

"What are you talking about, Selphie?" asked the girl, "Those kids are sick in bed. Even their parents said so," Selphie clicked her tongue, standing up to her full height (which wasn't very high) in front of her friend's desk. The girl sitting had to look up, though lazily rested her chin in the palm of her hand.

"Poor, darling Olette, how so naïve you are to think that those adults are so trustworthy. They only want you to think that their children -- our friends -- are sick in bed."

"Why would their parents even lie about that? If their kids were missing, wouldn't they do everything in their power to find their kids?" Olette argued with the over - confident Selphie. Selphie only chuckled with amusement, wagging her finger back and forth, like she knew so much more than the book worm.

"Because they. Don't. Know," she told her. Olette rolled her eyes and picked up the book, starting at the top of the page where she left off, because she couldn't quite remember what line she was on before the over - zealous Selphie had interrupted her book reading. Selphie, shocked at the sudden ignorance, threw her hands down on Olette's desk, making the girl look up again with a less - than - content look. "Listen! It's like this. The only reason that the adults only _think_ that their kids are sick in bed is because they have these little goblin's taking the place off their children!"

"Is that so?"

"It is!"

"Don't the adults --"

"The adults only see their children -- or what they think are their children. The goblins are completely invisible to their eyes."

"So how do you know they're goblins if their invisible to prying eyes?"

"Because their only invisible to the parents of the original kids' eyes. Anybody else looking could easily see it's not the same kid, and that's why they're 'sick in bed'."

Olette stared at Selphie for a moment or two more, than dropped her head down again to start again at the top of the page, while at the same time, another girl with short red hair walked in saying, "Selphie, are you spreading rumors again?"

"That's exactly what I wanna know!" Olette agreed.

"No, I'm not!" Selphie protested. The red haired girl stopped next to Olette's desk, facing Selphie, who wasn't much shorter than she was.

"Well, you're definitely spreading silliness. With a story like that, no one's going to believe you. You might want to work on it a bit."

"But, Kairi, I'm serious!" Selphie whined to the taller girl. Kairi only smiled.

"That's what you said about the squirrels in the soup can," Olette reminded her. Selphie puffed out her cheeks again. Maybe that one wasn't true, but there was definitely _something_ in the soup can, she just had yet to figure it out.

"Girls are so stupid," one of the two boys grumbled as he walked passed the classroom. His taller friend looked at him, both his green eyes open wide in surprise, but soon they narrowed while his mouth formed a smirk.

"Aren't you fighting for a girl?" he asked his blonde friend. The blonde's face flushed red and he quickly turned his ocean blue eyes away from his spiky - headed friend.

"Things like that shouldn't be so easily said out loud, Axel," the blonde boy said. Axel only shrugged, reaching up to lace his fingers behind his head. Like he cared what he said out loud. The blonde was only sensitive about silly things, namely girls. For a long time, he hated them, until he met this one in particular, but he couldn't easily change.

"Man, I can't believe we got deleted again!" Axel said in exasperation. Both boys stopped as Axel continued. "Now we have to change our names, birthdays, and locations again. I'm running out of ideas."

"It's alright, Axel. One of these days, it'll be worth it."

"You know, Roxas, if we keep this up, we'll really have to start from a new location."

"It is kind of weird, that so many kids are suddenly becoming sick," Kairi said. Roxas turned to look inside the classroom, where Kairi was staring straight at him. The blonde boy ducked behind the door, waiting for her to look away, but she wouldn't, because Axel was still staring straight at Roxas. Reaching out and grabbing, Roxas took hold of Axel's shirt and pulled him down behind the door with him. Kairi finally turned away, looking at Selphie and Olette this time. "I mean, it's not even the time of year where kids suddenly just become sick anymore," she added. Selphie nodded, taking in every bit of information that came out of Kairi's mouth. "Besides, all the kids that 'disappeared' were undeniably healthy in the first place. And Naminé did say something..."

"What did Naminé say?" Olette asked. Kairi put her fingers to her mouth, looking towards the classroom exit where Roxas and Axel were both hiding. She turned back to Olette and shrugged.

"At the moment, I can't begin to remember," she said sheepishly. Olette returned to her book.

"Didn't Naminé say something about glimmering hearts of sorrow fading into the morrow?" Selphie asked. Kairi nodded.

"What's that mean?" Olette asked, looking up.

"Who knows? Anyways, I have to go," Kairi finished, so she picked up her bag and left. Selphie watched as she left, curious why she brought up whatever the girl Naminé said, but soon interested herself with talking to Olette again.

"Find out anything about Naminé yet?" Kairi asked once she left the classroom. Axel and Roxas both left the shelter of the door to confront her, but only Axel looked straight at the girl. Roxas looked away, tapping his black - shoed foot impatiently.

"Only where she was being held," Axel explained to her. The group turned to walk down the hall, so they wouldn't be in Selphie's ear shot anymore. "They sent twenty - seven Twilight Slaves after us, but we were deleted by the mod after we had taken them all out."

"Again? How many times does this make?"

"About seventeen."

"And you're gonna try again?"

"I guess so."

"Kairi, what level are you on?" Roxas finally spoke up. Kairi looked at the blonde boy and smiled at him.

"Forty - eight."

"While we're training, can you and Sora try to find a way into that castle?" he asked. Axel raised his eyebrows at the shorter blonde boy. He hadn't really know him to ask help from _any _girl. But, as it was, it would take them all a while to train again, and any help would be useful.

"Alright," Kairi agreed. "Do you want me to ask Riku, too?" she asked him. Roxas fell quieter than he already was. A certain irritation buzzed around his head shortly after Riku's name was mentioned, but nobody dared to say anymore. Both Kairi and Axel knew the rivalry Roxas had with Riku. "Never mind, then," Kairi soon fixed. "I'll try to be on tonight, I promise," she said, and ran off down the hallway. Roxas stared after her, gripping something to his chest tightly.

"So do you trust her?" Axel asked him.

"We have to," Roxas answered, turning down the other hall. They were late for the bus.


	2. Chapter 2

**Tai doesn't own any Kingdom Hearts characters/settings.  
It may sound a wee bit like .hack.

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Hearts of Kingdoms

Name: Bobsuruncle  
Username: DevilsFlyIsDown

Name: Timothy  
Username: Oblivion

Name: Kairi  
Username: MismatchedPatches

Name: Sora  
Username: BearHugs

Chapter Two

**MismatchedPatches has logged into the game  
BearHugs has logged into the game**

"So...Kairi, have any ideas of where this castle might be?" Sora asked, turning to look at Kairi's character. She merely shrugged, heaving a large weighted axe over her shoulder.

"No, idea," she said. "But Roxas and Axel do, so we just have to wait for them to log in.

"How would we know it's them?"

"They know us."

**DevilsFlyIsDown has logged into the game  
Oblivion has logged into the game**

_DevilsFlyIsDown: Hey, Kairi. Sora there with you?_

"Oh, hey, it's Axel," Kairi gasped. Sora looked at her funny, then shrugged.

"How d'you know?"

"For one thing, Roxas doesn't message me. For another, 'cause it is. It's not hard to tell with Axel."

_MismatchedPatches: We're here, but we wanna know where the castle is._

_DevilsFlyIsDown: It's at the Crossroads, but you can't see it unless you're at the edge of the cliff. What lvl's Sora?_

_MismatchedPatches: Sixty-three_

_DevilsFlyIsDown: That'll help. The monsters are mostly lvl 50 and over, so the two of you will do fine...Roxas says "thank you"._

"Aw, how sweet!"

"What? What is it!?" Sora begged. He couldn't see the messages Kairi was being sent. They were either whispers or private messages. He didn't like them. "Tell me!" he whined.

"Calm down, you," Kairi demanded, sticking her tongue out. "Anyways, they just told us where the castle is. You familiar with the Crossroads?"

"Yeah, I trained there at level fifty."

"Okay, then, let's go.

* * *

It was the first time in a long time people had arrived here at the Crossroads. Most people never made it above fifty, or avoided this place all together. The GM's said it was a little dangerous, because the cliff dropped down into a bottomless abyss, and they hadn't yet finished the barrier before someone had accidentally added it to the game. Players could get lost and die quickly if they fell off the cliff by accident, so no one ever came.

But now here was a castle, tall and sinister looking that sat comfortable at the bottom of the cliff.

"Wasn't it here that Axel and Roxas were deleted?" Sora asked, no longer feeling safe here at the Crossroads. Kairi merely shrugged, adjusting again the large heavyweight axe on her shoulder. Sometimes she wondered how she lived with it; her character build was so small.

"Only after they were attacked by twenty something Twilight Slaves. But I don't see any around here."

"What about those ones?" Sora pointed now to only just a few Twilight Slaves that danced about. They didn't see the two, not quite yet, but if they didn't move, it was likely they would be seen by just one of them.

"Just walk away slow --"

One of the Twilight Slaves spun around and glared daggers into the two players who suddenly got the feeling that they weren't allowed to be here. Sora and Kairi gulped taking one step back. The other Twilight Slaves caught notice of them and turned to face them, too, floating closer and closer as the players backed away.

"Get ready to run."

"Yes ma'am."

Both turned and bolted, straight for the castle, and both had forgotten about the cliff. They ran straight over, floating for just a moment, before plummeting to the grey stone ground beneath them.

"If we're lucky, this won't hurt!" Sora said through the air. Kairi said nothing in return. Her fat axe was making her fall faster than she wanted, so she threw it straight down into the ground. It hit with a dull thump, the weight of it crushing into the ground and sending dirt and chunks of rock up. Kairi and Sora had to shield their eyes and faces for just a moment, before landing in the softened dirt.

"Sora?"

"What?"

"It still hurt."

"I agree..."

"My...What do we have here?" wondered a voice from above them. Kairi and Sora rolled over to see just who it was...but even if they stayed face down in the dirt, they'd get the same result. The man was covered head to foot in a black cloak, so that his face wasn't able to be seen. Three Twilight Slaves danced around him, and then danced around them. They were definitely caught.

"What do we do with them?" asked another cloaked man behind the first.

"We'll take them with us," said the first cloaked man. "It wouldn't be the first."

* * *

"Oh, this can't be good."

"What happened?"

"It's Sora and Kairi," Axel said, turning to his partner in valor. "They're gone!"

"What do you mean they're gone?" Roxas snapped, turning to face his partner in return.

"I mean they're gone, I can't message either of them anymore!"

"This can't be good..."


End file.
